corrente

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Goodnight, moon

Today seems as appropriate a day as any, and perhaps more appropriate than most, to make what The Clash would call a public service announcement:

First, the Blog of Eight has expanded to the blog of Eleven. Alert readers MJS, chicagodyke, and shystee have graciously consented to help us drag George Bush back to the hellhole that spawned Him help us in our ceaseless efforts to bring a new tone to American political discourse. I'm so fucking proud I could We're very happy to welcome such fine writers.

And now we come to the reason I haven't posted a Goodnight Moon for a long while; I've had a job on the night shift.

Yes, we're throwing open the doors of the renovated Mighty Corrente Building for the first time. Here's MJS's first post (he's just returned from Louisiana).

Here are some of the features that—blogger's massive and continuing suckitude aside—make the move to a new site, and new software, a Good Thing.

Briefly, when we control our server, our software, and our content, we control our own destiny. Of course, in dreams begin responsibilities, and that means work, but it also means the power to do good: We can program the new site; it's built with CivicSpace and Drupal, and hosted at OpenSourceHost.

The renovated Mighty Corrente Building is not yet finished—there's still wiring hanging from the ceiling, the wet bar isn't fully installed, some of the glass in the greenhouses got shattered during a wild party, and so on.

But we think it's ready enough for you, alert readers, to take a look at. For a time, we'll maintain this site, and the new site, in parallel. But as soon as possible, we're going to throw away the blogspot crutch, and walk.

Readers, at the right side of the menu on the new site, you'll see a "Feedback" link. Please use it!

But be gentle. We're fragile flowers here at Corrente....

NOTE Everyone contributed to this effort. But I want to give a shout out to farmer for relentlessly butting heads with and hammering on me clarifying the requirements for the site (since no software project can proceed, let alone succeed, without a decent set of requirements); Xan for making the suggestion to look into CivicSpace; Leah for moral support (in all senses of the word "moral"); and alert readers Hobson (for layout advice) and especially Nick (for the beautiful logo).